"Ye sootra ko hum mootra samajhte hai": Tejashwi Yadav rubbishes ECI claims on presence of foreign nationals in Bihar voter list review

Patna (Bihar) [India], July 13 (ANI): Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday rubbished claims that the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists for Bihar elections revealed names of people from Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar.
He questioned the credibility of sources making such claims, likening them to rumors about Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore being captured.
"Who are these sources? These are the same sources that said that Islamabad, Karachi, and Lahore have been captured. 'Ye sootra ko hum mootra samajhte hai' (We consider these sources to be nonsense)," Yadav said.
Yadav emphasised that SIR was last conducted in 2003 under the UPA government, and since then, multiple elections have taken place, including in 2014, 2019, and 2024, where the opposition lost by a margin of three to four lakhs. He questioned whether this implies that foreigners voted for Prime Minister Modi.
"SIR was conducted for the last time in 2003 under the UPA government. Since then, we have seen many elections, including the ones in 2014, 2019, and 2024. In those elections, we lost by three to four lakhs. Does that mean all these foreigners voted for PM Modi?" he added.
Yadav alleged that the NDA is responsible for any dubious elements' names getting added to the voter lists, implying that their electoral victories might be tainted by fraud.
He accused the Election Commission of working as a cell of a political party, calling the SIR process a "complete eyewash".
"This means that the NDA are at fault for any dubious elements' names getting added to the voter lists... That means all the elections they have won have been a fraud... SIR is a complete eyewash. The EC is working as a cell of a political party...," said the RJD leader.
Slamming both the Centre and Nitish Kumar, the RJD leader said that if any 'dubious names' were added in the voter lists, the responsibility lies with the government who has stayed in power since 2005.
"Since 2005, whose government has been in Bihar? NDA's government, BJP, Nitish Kumar's government is there. For 11 years who has been the Union Home Minister, who is the PM for the last 11 years? Modi and Amit Shah. This means that the NDA are at fault for any dubious elements' names getting added to the voter lists. That means all the elections they have won have been a fraud," he said.
Earlier, ECI sources said that a large number of individuals from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar have been found by Booth Level Officers (BLOs) with Aadhaar cards, domicile certificates and ration cards during house-to-house visits carried out as part of the SIR.
ECI sources say that after a proper enquiry to be conducted from 1 Aug till 30 Aug, if found true, such names shall not be included in the final list to be published on 30 Sep 2025.
The State will have assembly polls later in the year.
Notably, the BLOs have already digitised and uploaded 4.66 crore Enumeration Forms in ECINet by 6 PM today. ECINet is the newly developed integrated software that has subsumed all the different 40 ECI Apps that had existed earlier. (ANI)